It seems like the coach/player chemistry is really poor right now. The players just aren't responding and it appears from this fan's standpoint, that the coaches are really struggling to put the player's in the best position to succeed. If brewer is hurt, take him out or spell him throughout the game. Change it up! Show the players you are trying to lead to success! Gosh this feels worse than 2002 season.
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After hearing the players talk after the game, I sincerely doubt this is the case.
I didn't know where to post this, but I'll throw this comment in here...
While watching the UNC/LOLUVA game, I noticed several times where players on the UNC defense gave up on missed tackles, trailed behind, and kind of waited for someone else to make a play. I saw a DB do that on a TD pass, and some linemen and blitzing LBs do it on a QB scramble. I NEVER see that at VT. I see guys flying to the ball no matter how far out of the play they may seem to be. There is no quit. It is the product of good coaching and team unity.
This team plays hard. They fly to the ball. Our defense is a good defense...but just not great. We have speed but are undersized on the front. Corey Marshall for example....great player ( I am his biggest fan ) ...but he is a defensive end playing a tackle position. We lack size and it shows! Offensively we have some awesome young playmakers all over the field. The reason we suck is because of playcalling .....PERIOD! When is the last time you have seen a wide receiver catch a ball on a slant route over the middle......(Very little this year). Lefty game plans for east / west running and east / west passing which is a friggin joke. Why would you run a 230lb running back side to side. Did you see the push Wyatt Teller was getting on the Miami D Line.....Oh my god, Marshawn could have run behind him all night and got 5 yards a play! Bucky Hodges.....arguably the most athletic TE in the nation was not even hardly in the game plan. Throw the damn ball up the field....run the running backs up the field. Stop the bullshit pre motion and score some points!
I sat in the stands in the 4th quarter and realized that I couldn't say that we should bench Brewer because I hadn't seem him throw a pass farther than 5 yards down the field. Oh well besides those 3 balls out of bounds on our own 1. They may have made it 15 yards or so.
But in all seriousness. Michael Brewer is a fighter, but Loeffler has fully handicapped him so badly that we are speculating that he is hurt. Maybe he is, but it is definitely baffling.
BOOM! Leg number 1000 for you! Congrats!
realized that I couldn't say that we should bench Brewer because I hadn't seem him throw a pass farther than 5 yards down the field.
Isn't that reason enough to bench him? Loeffler, as bad of a coordinator as he is right now, is no idiot. He's seeing the same stuff we are. My guess is he wants to go long but either Frank is so stubborn on running the ball or he has no trust in both the accuracy and power behind his QB's arm. If the first reason is why, there is nothing to do about that. But my guess is it's the ladder. They simply appear to lack confidence in Brewer. If that is the case, which seems most logical, then I would say move the next guy up. Chuck the ball long. Brewer's long ball is nothing to get excited about, but that might be more reason to move the next guy up. I've said it more than once, but there is no reason to make a change at QB just to excite the fans and hope for magic. But when you don't even utilize the one thing a QB should be really good at doing (THROWING THE BALL), it may be time for a change at the position.
Are the WRs getting open downfield? Is the OL blocking well enough, for long enough to even try a long pass? There is more to passing than a QBs arm.. I remember a couple deep passes a few games ago that the WRs should've caught the passes for TDs and either pulled up a step or two too soon, or didn't run through the pass well enough to get under it - neither of which can be blamed on Brewer, but it seems like Brewers arm strength, and Leftys confidence in it are the only two factors anyone is talking about
I think this is a really good point. As someone brought up a few weeks ago (might've been Joe, don't really remember), our top playmakers are two true freshmen WRs and a r-freshman TE who's been playing the position for just over a calendar year. Are they gonna be in the right spot at the right time every single play? I rather doubt it. There's always more to the passing game than the QB's numbers.
That is absolutely true that's a good point. We can say though that the last couple times Brewer took a shot down field it wasn't close. He has missed a wide open Bucky Hodges multiple times. I guess my thought is literally what do we have to lose. Leal can do everything that Brewer is being asked to do at this point.
Except recognize a cover 2. But really, didn't we just go through this last year? I would've thought the Sun Bowl would finally lay to rest all the chatter about "just throw in the backup, he can't do worse, could he?" A couple good throws in garbage time (and a couple bad ones) against a prevent defense isn't quite enough to convince me, but you never know.
13-20 for 80 yards.
11 TD's to 11 interceptions.
Tell me, what is the harm in giving Leal a shot? Are we worried about hurting Brewer's feelings?
What do the Hokies have to lose by just giving Leal a shot?
Why are we so resistant to change?
Brewer isn't playing well...it seems like the coaches make a lot of excuses for him.
I know it isn't all his fault...I really like Brewer and his intangibles. After the OSU win, I really thought we had a special QB. It hasn't turned out that way.
I don't see the harm in trying something new at this point...
Leal played good last thursday agains Miami's bench I'll give you that. Brewer has made some mistakes but he is a gamer at times. If we can get him better protection and some confidence back he will start to settle in and make plays.
Loeffler and Beamer are so worried about Brewer throwing a pick that they've completely nudered the man. I don't blame them. His interception problems were bad. But at this point I'd rather take throwing brewer with 2 int a game then brewer that doesn't even throw the ball more than 10 yards down the field. At least 2 int Brewer has the offense moving down the field.
"nudered". Heh, heh, heh.
I completely agree. Brewer has had his ups and downs, has cost us some games, but the coaching staff is handicapping him. They don't call any vertical plays whatsoever.
I will say this, I'm not a big Leal fan, I would rather see Motley get some snaps. At least he can make plays with his feet is the play breaks down.
I keep hearing this but, isn't Motley hurt?
Did he not hurt his back and that dropped him from getting any snaps in the summer?
If he is hurt, its news to me
There's nothing more than speculation at this point. He did indeed have a back injury that kept him out of summer camp.
One would think that if Motley did indeed have a back injury so severe it kept him unable to play so many months after summer practice, that he would have had some type of procedure and it would have been made public. A much more plausible explanation is that Motley has just not surpassed Leal as the backup. While that doesn't sync with the hopes of those who think Motley is 'The Answer' at QB, it at least makes sense.
He's been a little nicked up throughout the season, from what I'm hearing.
i don't disagree necessarily but some players play like that regardless of the quality of coaching so i'm not sure you can 100% say that hustling on every play is 100% the product of good coaching. The every down effort may be a greater testament to the quality of the kids we recruit (for the most part).
Regarding unity, perhaps you're referring to locker room unity (i.e. not fighting or pointing fingers) but there definitely appears to be a unity/trust issue on the field.
Not trying to be argumentative, just chiming in my thoughts.
Maybe it's a lack of trust? Beamer no longer trusts Loeffler to call a balanced game and Loeffler dn trust Brewer to throw it accross the middle or downfield. And it definitely affecting Brewer's psyche as seen in the hesitation seen in his throws lately. He's not hurt physically; he's broken mentally!
what are you basing this on?
But in the Miami game Brewer did nothing to hurt our offense... He didn't do whole lot to help it but he wasn't the one who turned it over 3 times!
Respectfully, then what is the point of having a QB? I agree that it is good that he didn't throw any picks, but he isn't throwing anything that is worth a damn. His throws are not moving the sticks. If they are not going to throw, then we are completely one-dimensional and all they have to do is load the box to stop the run. Look, if he is hurt and can't throw middle to long throws, then bench him and give Mark Leal a shot. If the coaches are that afraid that Brewer will throw interceptions if he throws middle to long balls, then bench Brewer. What we are doing now is a complete clusterf##k.
Lofflers big plus and selling point was that he was supposedly a great QB coach and developer . Under his coaching both Logan & Brewer regressed during the seasons. Not only is his play calling questionable , but also his claim to be a QB guru.
That's not exactly correct. Logan did not regress under Loeffler. He actually improved his fundamentals under Loeffler, and credited Loeffler for that, as did Logan's QB guru, whose name escapes me now.
Logan's numbers might not have been as gaudy as his soph year, but if you want to say he regressed at any time, it would be during his junior season, before Loeffler arrived.
It's also difficult to say that Brewer has regressed under Loeffler, since he has only been here this season. It would probably be more accurate to say that Brewer's OhState game was a fluke than saying he has regressed. Brewer's not achieving as expected, for sure. That can be attributed to a lot of factors, though. he might be injured, he might be hiding a concussion, he might have been ordered to avoid INTs at all costs. he might just not be finding receivers open deep the last two games, nobody is talking about that. Prior to the game, Andy Bitter had a Miami sportswriter on who said that Miami's D was especially strong on deep route coverage. During the Pitt game, the announcers mentioned how well covered the receivers were on their deep routes.
Just adding a little perspective...
A little perspective . Sorry, but the interceptions last year against Duke & BC look like regression to me. , certainly not improvement. Brewers play for whatever reason has not Improved since Ohio State and also look like regression. Logan's fundamentals may have improved but he was still throwing interceptions.
This has been rehashed to death. Go hunt up the threads for these games last year and you will find some real good analysis on responsibility for INTs for those games.
Some were dumb mistakes, 1 or 2 throwing errors, a tipped ball, a WR not completing the route or 2,
fatigued from getting hit all game as also being the primary RB as well as the QB.......
Not all INTs are on the QB but, I don't remember it was a year ago.
Brewer was lucky against Ohio State. He showed that gunslinger mentality that QBs like Brett Favre had over the years, and we all got excited because we thought we finally had a guy behind center who could place a ball in the perfect spot every time. We couldn't have been more wrong. His already questionable decision making (which allowed for success against tOSU on pure blind luck) was compounded and magnified by his inaccuracies over the next few weeks, showing us just what we had in our QB this year. Which was a kid who panics behind center and routinely tries to force the ball into horrible situations. He hasn't really gotten worse, teams have just figured out that he's really not that good and certainly not a QB worth respecting, so they bring in an extra rusher on every play, playing the safeties close to the LOS (knowing he cannot complete a deep throw if his life depended on it) to stop the run, and it has completely neutralized everything we are trying to do on offense. He's not worse, he's just been figured out.
So no one has brought up the fact that he was at TX Tech and wasn't a starter? Maybe there was a reason?
Well, it was easy to point to the fact that he was injured as an easy explanation to why it didn't matter.
What people didn't want to focus on was the fact that after he got healthy, he was beat out by a walk-on to the point where he needed to transfer schools to get playing time. That in and of itself should have sent up numerous red flags.
To be fair, he was injured preseason (back injury) and not cleared to play until Oct 2013. He lit it up in their spring game was going to be the man in the fall.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1960277-michael-brewers-shot-at-texas...
I brought it up back in August and was downvoted for doing so. That was the time when many thought he would be amazing as our QB and the mantra was that he would be great. I merely questioned that since the coaches took so long to declare him the starter, despite having said in the summer they would make an early announcement on the starter.
I thought he got hurt at Tex tech and the #2 took his spot. I could be wrong.
We are 0-2 in games in which Brewer does not have an interception. Does this mean we are not throwing the ball down the field enough in those games?
We are young and we will get better. We lack quality depth, but help is on the way. We will get stronger!! Calm down we will get better. Lets stay committed to our team. What has drawn us to VT is family!! AND family never ever turns it's back on FAMILY!!!
Love seeing your posts ^^
This one clearly baffles me why someone other than a UVa supporter would downvote it.
"Brothers don't shake hands....Brothers gotta HUG!!"
Agree that VT is family...respect your optimism. I think we will get better..but this is a very oversimplified view of the state of the team right now. Hoping for the future and blindly accepting failure are not going to fix the problems the team is having right now.
Families should be strong enough to air out their problems and get to a solution. Silently standing by while Grand-dad drives the family car off the road is also not helpful.
Yeah, but Grandpa has earned the right to drive for as long as he wishes, according to some.
This thread is a perfect example of why they call us arm-chair quarterbacks.
Go Hokies!
Uh...don't you mean Arm-Chair Tight End??
Now only a Hokie could have thought of that one. Funny.
I don't see examples of players quitting. I see examples of Defenders on the field not having anything left in the tank because they only get 3 plays off before having to grab their helmet and go back out there. Do that 5 times in a row and even Dadi runs out of gas.
On offense, maybe some of the young guys are getting frustrated, but I'm not seeing them quit on plays. I think you could see that in the way Ford was going all out to try to grab those TD passes in the 4th quarter. I'm not seeing quit.
In the end, winning cures all.
I have heard some scuttlebutt on other sites that brewer is playing hurt, specifically his back, which got rocked pretty good during the OSU game. Quite a few folks seem to think this is a serious underlying issue why he cant seem to throw a ball with any more velocity/accuracy on it then my 8 yr old boy can. I know that players play hurt all the time, but if his "hurt" is effecting his game, why one earth would the coaches keep him in? I understand that mentally he is further along then the other QB's on the roster, but is a wounded duck brewer really that much better then a live motley or leal? Especially since we are basically giving up on any passing plays that go more then 10 yards past the line of scrimmage, and opposing D's know this. Seems like we are hamstringing ourselves a bit. Couple that with the O-line not being able to consistently block their way out of a paper bag, it seems like it will be rough sledding the rest of the year.
I agree. I think his back issues are bothering him. He admitted to having spasms during the OSU game.
We've all heard this plenty, and I just thought it was a reasonable explanation, but pure speculation by the fan base. I hadn't heard that he admitted to the back spasms during OSU. Interesting. Has he or anyone on the team/staff mentioned after any of the games since?
Edit: We all want explanations so badly that we will take any bit of information as possible to try and make us understand what we are seeing on the field. Maybe there just isn't a simple explanation.
The only time I ever read an article where Brewer mentioned playing hurt was right before the bye week before the Pitt Game. He mentioned that the bye was much needed, giving him and others time to heal-up. Nothing specific. But this leads to another question, "Why are we starting an injured QB? This just baffles me beyond reason."
Beamer mentioned it last week on TTL (here are the notes from TSL http://virginiatech.sportswar.com/free-content/2014/10/20/tech-talk-live...)
This was the first time that I remember a coach saying anything about Brewer being hurt.
Wasn't there the same issue with Dave Meyer?
Deep Ball Dave? I'm not sure. I spent most of his time on the team in a haze of Jim Beam and Wild Turkey.
i've heard that he's been battling a bit of a dead arm for the past few weeks and haven't really heard anything beyond that. it kind of makes sense to be honest. he didn't really play at Texas Tech and then transferred so without a lot of reps, his arm conditioning may have been a little behind. Having had a dead arm numerous times before, it's a frustrating thing. The technique, throwing motion, etc are all the same but the ball just doesn't move as fast regardless of how much additional effort you put into the throw. His technique has dropped off a bit and that's probably due to getting smacked in the teeth a lot but when he sets to throw and has time, the ball just seems to lack velocity. it's not really an injury but rest and conditioning are the only real things you can do to recover. hopefully the extra couple days off will help.
http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2014/september/12/brewer-embraces-spot...
Completely missed that post and that article. Thanks, enjoy the TL!
Love that attitude from Brewer, but if he's playing hurt, he and the coaches need to get on the same page and realize that starting another QB might be best for the team. Idk what to think. The rest of the season will be very interesting, and so will the QB competition this coming spring.
From what was posted by knowledgeable sources brewer couldn't even carry his bags to the bus post-Osu, his back was so bad. If it has not gotten right yet, is he just trying to be a gamer or are the guys behind him really that bad?
Probably some of both. If that weren't the case, we would have seen them in games. Yes, Leal got in as a mop up QB, but not until the very end. If Motley were as good as people wrongly assumed in the spring, he would have been the one subbing for Brewer. He is not.
I think the kid made some big life changing decisions and traveled a long way from Texas to play QB for the Hokies and he doesn't want to ride the pine after having made those sacrifices.
Makes you wonder if Brewer is being honest with the coaching staff about any pain/stiffness.
Personally, I don't think Brewer is healthy. LT played hurt (shoulder) last year and Brewer took the pounding of his life against OSU. I love the kid's toughness. Personnel management is where I question if we are doing all we can to put the TEAM in the best position to be successful. IMO the kids feel similar based on the oline shuffling and the rb rotation over the season as a whole post OSU.
Still love my Hokies!
I hope the team shuts us all up this next game and plays like a bunch of men on fire. I want Brewer to step up and show why he's still the starting QB. I want to see our playmakers being used to the best of their ability, and I want to see a swarming defense. I don't care how these past few games have gone. I just want to see our guys focus on Boston College and beat them down. That's going to be the only expectation I have from here on out, that our guys look at who's the team on deck and do everything they can to win.
I honestly have no clue what to expect next game. I don't think there has been one game where they played like they should/we expected.